"I do not wish to understand." She broke into his stammering speech with a certain courage, but a courage that she felt was failing her. For the first time real fear seized upon her.
"You shall understand," said he. "When I tell you that my very soul is in your keeping—-"
He broke off and tried to take her hand, but she pushed him from her. She felt terrified.
"Your soul! Yours!" she said. "Oh, no, no, no!"
There was such horror, such open shrinking, in her whole air that he stood and looked at her. Had she heard anything? Was there a suspicion in her mind? Impossible! He dismissed that thought, but another rose. He felt now that his case was hopeless, so far as she was concerned. He was abhorrent to her. She loathed him, and —strongest lever of all against him—she loved another. Had she been free he might have won her, but he knew her well enough —and it was this knowledge that had drawn him to her—to understand that when once steadfastly determined she would be hard to move.
"You have decided?" said he.
She made a little movement to signify acquiescence.
"You deliberately choose a life of want?"
"I choose the life I wish to lead."
"And Mrs. Greatorex? She has been good to you. You will go against her? yet you owe her something."